“SURF-BY LAWSUITS” ARE REALLY A THING

Our industry has fought for many years to reform California’s ADA lawsuit abuse, and have made some very good changes to policy that both expands access to our guests and tenants while protecting property owners and businesses from frivolous lawsuits. However, it appears that a new trend of Title III lawsuits may be heading our way. The “Surf-by” lawsuit. Where some enterprising lawyer logs onto your website and searches for accessibility violations and files suit if any our found. Yes, this is, unfortunately, a real thing.

From the lexology.com website: “A federal court in Florida issued a potentially groundbreaking decision earlier this week that could open the floodgates when it comes to a new trend in litigation filed under Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA): the “surf-by” lawsuit. While businesses have been forced to deal with so-called drive-by lawsuits for some time now – those claims filed by plaintiffs who spot technical ADA violations such as inaccessible entrances by simply driving down the street – recent years have seen an explosion when it comes to the digital equivalent of such suits. Surf-by lawsuits, on the other hand, are initiated when someone simply logs onto your company’s website to search for possible accessibility violations, and if any are found, follows through by filing an ADA lawsuit against you, sometimes without prior warning.”